Snake Temple

Perhaps the most misleadingly named destination in Penang is about 3km before the airport. Not that there’s not snakes in the Snake Temple. But c’mon – you read ‘Snake Temple’ and expect beating drums, pythons coiled around lithesome sacrificial virgins, mad monks wielding trained vipers…nah. It’s just a temple with some doped up (or seemingly doped up) snakes. It’s dedicated to Chor Soo Kong, a Buddhist priest and healer, and was built in 1850 by one of his grateful patients. The several resident venomous Wagler’s pit vipers and green tree snakes are said to be slightly stoned by the incense smoke drifting around the temple during the day, but at night they slither down to eat the offerings and apparently throw a huge party, leaving them too messed up to do anything but lay around all the next day. There’s a small snake exhibition with tanks containing various snakes, including pythons and cobras. Persistent snake handlers will charge RM30 for taking your photo holding a snake.